Lucifer's Touch Part 4

Lucifer's Touch Part 4

"Now get up. We have work to do in this place, and I will not tolerate LAZINESS!" Eirnin roared as I quickly jumped back, his harsh voice setting my nerves on edge. Kel was just standing around, trying to act big, but failing miserably. He might've scared off a few of the Cultists, but I've stared down some mean motherfuckers.

I stood there, trying to look nonchalant, a hard thing to do when you're taller than everyone else by about a foot. So I said nothing, knowing that Eirnin's voice alone would be enough to fill any space.

"Now." As you might've guessed, I run a tight ship here." Eirnin said, gesturing towards the dispersing cultists. "And you will learn to OBEY or SUFFER!" I tried hard to not roll my eyes. He truly was the master of melodrama, if nothing else. I kept quiet, knowing it was my job to ensure that he said more than he wanted to.

"You will be my bodyguard. Whenever I leave to go into Unbeliever's Territory, you shall be there, guarding with sword and honour! While you're here, you can toil and put your sweat towards GLORY!" Eirnin yelled once more, turning a simple statement into a pronouncement for the ages. I kept my head down as a sign of respect, and because I didn't know when Eirnin would start ranting again. I took what he said to mean that I would be his hired goon as well as being a very cheap labourer. There were worse jobs that I could end up doing.

Eirnin looked at me once more. I tried to ignore the smell coming from him, many sins at once; so many that I had no idea where one started one finished. I did take note of the smell of lust that was starting to get a little stronger. He was starting to seize me up with his eyes; I could see the little wheels in his head turning. He grabbed my arm and felt up the muscles inside, as I tried not to shrink back. My heart plummeted. Sure, I'm willing to do anything, but even I have standards. Eirnin was outside those standards, at least unless he was willing to wear a gag.

"FOLLOW!" Eirnin bellowed once more, giving me a headache. He gestured with his finger and I rose. It was a little hard balancing my feet as I'd been tied up in a funny position. I bounced up and down slightly, trying to get the right rhythm with my tail, arms, legs and wings. I followed the Master with my tail trailing between my legs. I didn't want to raise Eirnin's suspicions even more than they were already. I needed to pretend that I was there to observe and obey, to make sure he thought I actually liked him.

The Cultists had all retreated now, and it was just me, Eirnin and Kel. He led me through past the Torture Cave and moved further back inside the cavern. This part of the compound was untouched. There was no furniture, no brass statues of Eirnin, or anything else that Eirnin did to dress up the caves. Unfortunate for all you cave freaks out there, there weren't any rocks on ceilings or anything interesting to hold your imagination. Kel moved to the front of the pack, holding up a battery-powered torch. The Master followed quickly behind him and I trailed behind Eirnin. I peered at the walls, wondering how many bodies were hidden behind these walls. There was a faint linger of death around this place, but it could just be Eirnin's smell once more.

"STOP!" Eirnin commanded as Kel froze in position. He then turned to me, while licking his lips. "Demon. You will notice in front of you that the cavern in front of you is blocked. The stones are to be cleared." He muttered, while making grandiose gestures with his hands. Kel had passed the torch into his hands, and he was now shining it as close to my face as he could.

I looked around. There was nothing, except the markings on the wall to tell me where I was. I looked up, and saw that there was not a trace of light. Eirnin and Kel were both staring at me, waiting for a response. Eirnin's foot started to tap. I looked around the cavern and noticed a pickaxe in the corner. Evidently it seemed that the Master wanted me to start work RIGHT NOW on his little project. They had already turned their backs on me and begun to make their way back, taking their torch with them.

Lucky for me, I was used to the dark. There is very little natural sunlight at home, so I saw everything through the same red and black view that I did Down Below. All I had to do was figure out how I was going to do this task, without sinking my claws into Eirnin's nice soft neck. The thought of seeing his blood splattered on my skin was making me happy, very happy indeed.

I grabbed the pickaxe in my hands and flew up to the top. The pickaxe felt extremely light in my hands. I studied the top of the cavern wall, wondering how I would be best to attack this task. Unlike the stones I was chained to earlier, this was not a solid wall, but felt like several large stones had fallen into this hole over several years. I flew up to the top, making sure to steady myself. Flying is easy. It's when you have to hover in the same spot to do something for a long time that it starts to get difficult.

It wasn't that hard to knock down stones. Since I have lift a lot of weights and do a few hundred push-ups a day, it was no deal at all to swing forwards and backwards, hoping to weaken some of the top ones, but it was hard keeping my wings fluttering in time to make sure that I kept my body stable. I had to keep reminding myself that there was no ground beneath my feet, no leg muscles to stabilise myself.

Now, I bet you're wondering why I just stayed there just chipping away at a stone wall for a dickhead like Eirnin. Well the main reason was this- I loved the task. It was mindless, it was physical, and I got to keep my natural sexy demon self intact, instead of being forced to shape shift into a ghastly human body. I liked the simple motion of the pickaxe as I tried to figure out the best place to knock down the stones. I loved the way that I didn't have to hear Eirnin roaring in front of my face, or Kel giving me one of his strange looks. I didn't have Furcas watching over me, didn't have to try and impress anyone.

After a few hours or so, I saw a glow snaking its way down the corridor. I was too busy to really care about what was happening. I sniffed the air as I worked, and noticed that there wasn't that much change in the amount of sin in the atmosphere. I was armed with a pickaxe and didn't care about what was going to happen.

It was none other than our good friend Anrio. He had his usual fireball thing and he was walking slowly and delicately, making sure that I heard every single step he made with his boots clacking over the stone floor. As soon as he reached the bottom of the pile, he craned his neck and bellowed.

"Demon. You have five minutes to wrap up your task. The Master has requested your presence in his room." Anrio said, trembling when he said the word "Master".

I was hoping that he'd turn away so that I could slow down, but nope. I had to try and let my arm cool down so that I wouldn't have cramps for the rest of the day. Those can be painful. As soon as I stopped, I fluttered down to face Anrio. The desire to use the pickaxe through Anrio's skull was beginning to grow. I mean, seriously. That kid just kept starting at me. Is there some kind of illness that circulated through these caves?

"On the ground? Good. Master said I had to use this on you." Anrio muttered as he went round my back and pulled my arms behind me. I tried to strangle him, my arms suddenly tightened, cutting off my blood supply. I looked down. The metal plates that Eirnin put on my arms earlier were beginning to tighten, and I was starting to feel quite short of breath.

"Master said you might be thinking of escaping. So we're putting some chains on you" Anrio droned in the typical zombie Cultist accent. While I was unable to move my arms, Anrio used that as an opportunity to put a metal bracelet around my arms, a little closer to my elbow. Attached to his end were some chains, which Anrio grabbed onto.

Once he had chained me up like a dog, he pulled me along towards the Master's office. These caverns were new to me, but it was only the subtle differences with the shadows on the wall that let me tell the difference between the other caves I'd been in. There was no-one around once we'd made our way back to the main caverns. Perhaps they'd gone off to do some farming

I was rotating my wrists, to try and make sure my hands would still work, as Kel made me stand behind a large pair of wooden doors, set into the rock. I nearly laughed. It was something that looked so ordinary in Wacko Eirnin Bizarro Land. Even though this was where the Head Honcho lived, there were no posters of his face or anything of the kind.

Anrio blew out the flame he was carrying, the burning torches to the side of the door providing the only source of light for us. I kept the expression on my face natural, as I did not want the Master to shower me with his bile once more. Keeping my breaths calm, I balled my hands into fists, so that I would be able to obey without questioning or strangling Eirnin. All in a days work.

"Wait here, Demon." Anrio spat at me. I sucked in my pride as he tied me up to a metal post that was just to the side of the doorway. He tapped on the door; as it slowly creaked open a crack. Anrio squeezed in. I tried to pick up snippets of what they were saying, but the thickness of the door prevented me. This was puzzling in itself, as I have good hearing and Eirnin loves to scream and yell.

After a while, I started to get bored. There was nothing happening and they'd dragged me all the way out here for nothing. I moved my arms, but once again it seems that they'd managed to tie me to a post that I could not move. I noticed that the post was actually integrated into the cavern system. I pulled myself down, leaning my entire body weight to see if I was to get free. Before I could even feel my chains groan, Anrio called me out to speak to the Master.

We entered Eirnin's room. His room was so out of place considering everything else that was going on. There were several hard leather chairs, all facing a hand carved wooden table, as well as a few bookcases dotted around the room. The candles and lamps used to power this room gave a slight romantic touch.

Anrio forced me to the ground. My nose touched the slightly cleaner-but-still-cold-as-hell floor. Once he was satisfied that I was lying prostate on the floor, he did likewise. I watched him out the side of my eye, bored out of my brain. Several long agonising moments passed, as my anger started to increase. Who the fuck did Eirnin think he was? I was submitting to a mere human, someone who wouldn't even be worthy of eating our garbage back home. My eyes flicked back to Anrio, who had his eyes closed in deep reverence for his master. I had to bite my lip to make sure that I did not burst out with some very appropriate comments.

Eirnin shifted into the room. He had changed into new robes today, red silk with gold piping. I was now more convinced than ever that he was a self-righteous wanker. I was half-expecting a group of people to come out and start blowing trumpets in adoration for our Glorious and Wise Master.

"RISE!" Eirnin bellowed, waving his hands around in what he thought to be a dramatic gesture. Both of us were on our feet within a split-second. I wobbled a bit while rubbing my nose and hands warm. I didn't know what the fuck Eirnin was playing at. Anrio leaned forward, starting to tremble.

"ANRIO LEAVE!" Eirnin roared, my ears starting to ring from the sound of his yelling. He was starting to remind me of a caveman, with his mindless yelling and one track mind. In fact I was starting to wonder if the Master could speak more than one syllable at a time. I waited, hoping that my tail wouldn't twitch too much, and that I wouldn't retch from his smell.

"As I told you before, you are my bodyguard as well as my slave. As I am travelling to Unbeliever Territory, you will need to protect your Master from any harm that shall befall him!"

While I relished in the irony of someone who I was powerless to defeat ask for my protection, I couldn't help but wonder. This job seemed a little too easy. I mean it was obvious to anyone who was watching that Eirnin was a nut. Unfortunate for me, what I was thinking must've shown on my face because Eirnin took offence. He took a deep breath and yelled in front of my face.

"YOU SHALL LOOK RESPECTFUL WHEN YOUR MASTER GIVES YOU AN ORDER!" I was tempted to wave my hand in front of my face, but was stopped when Eirnin slapped me across the face. I had to admit; it stung and was quite refreshing. But I did have to smarten up, so I held my head down in something that vaguely resembled shame. A small cold smile crept across Eirnin's face.

Without warning, he went up behind me and whacked me in the lower back. Completely by reflex I straightened up. Eirnin stepped back to admire his handiwork.

"Now, are we going to be a good little demon and listen up?" Eirnin sneered, forgetting the rules of grammar for a few moments. He peered into my eyes, looking for any sign of disrespect. I said and did nothing, waiting for him to do something stupid to amuse me. I was bored.

He drummed his fingers on his arm, waiting for me to say something, do anything. When he noticed that I was doing nothing but silently staring at him, he started to lean closer to my ear

"Now. RAISE YOUR CHIN AND STRAIGHTEN UP!!!" I jumped as I fought off my natural instinct to kill whatever was near me; I forced my hands into fists and relaxed them. I straightened up and raised my chin, just as the Master ordered. There was just something about Eirnin's voice that was starting to take an effect on me. It commanded attention, and not because he's causing me to go deaf either.

Eirnin clicked his fingers, hoping to stun me into action like some sort of dog. I was about to give him a dirty look, but didn't.

"Now, the other problem is that you need something to wear. You're quite tall and big, and there's no way I'm letting you near my stuff." Eirnin snorted before looking at my increasingly tattered rags. I nodded. My breathing was steady now. My heart on the other hand was not. Eirnin's whole attitude was really starting to piss me off. Not by what he said, but because he reminded me that a little pipsqueak like him was dominating a demon. He was walking around like a puffed up peacock. In fact I was half expecting him to come out with some fancypants cloak and parade around in it for the benefit of the drooling masses.

I looked around. This place was a joke. Sure, Eirnin managed to make a nice cave home, and sucker a few people into joining his insane cult. I was starting to think that's why my own Master sent me up here. It wasn't to check out Eirnin or anything, it was to get me out of his hair for a few months or so. He wanted to see me submit to someone else, and suffer while I was doing that.

But all that aside, I had a job to do. Eirnin looked at me with a raised eyebrow, while he wondered what to do with me. I straightened up, while the smallest of smirks crept across his face.

"Now that you are starting to come to your senses, will you start to BEHAVE?!" Eirnin thumped his fist down on a wooden table. I eyed him closely, waiting for him to completely lose his mind once more.

"Yes…Master." I droned, hoping that he wouldn't think that I was taking the piss out of him. The word 'Master' was escaping from my lips far too often these days. I fell to the floor, pretending to be awed by Eirnin's awesomeness.

"Now GET UP! Stop lazing around and SERVE!" I scrambled to my feet, knowing there was no way that I could please this man. Eirnin had moved round to my left and his booming voice was starting to vibrate around the cave. He opened his mouth and started to roar once more.

"I SHALL NOT HAVE MY MINIONS DRESSED IN RAGS! REMOVE YOUR SHIRT!" I quickly obeyed. My nice red shirt had nothing but spatter on from my labours. I had been wearing the same freaking thing for several days, and I prefer feeling the wind against my skin.

Eirnin sniffed me once more, paying close attention to under my neck. I knew that I hadn't had anything to wash, but from the smells that circulated around this place, it was something that Eirnin's group were certainly guilty of. Perhaps he shared my demonic nose and was trying to see what I get up to. That would keep him occupied for a few weeks, at least.

He pulled out and straightened up, clicking his fingers.

"Come now. We have work to do on the surface!" He said his normally booming voice much quieter. He gestured further towards me, as we prepared for the journey upwards.